I have spent more than 30 years working with Civil Defense with the City.
Yes, it’s got a different name now but does the same stuff.
I have hundreds of hours in the middle of floods, hurricanes, storms, whatever.
I’ve directed traffic, evacuated people, fought brush fires and pulled drunks out of car wrecks.
One thing I have never understood is why people try to drive through a flooded road too fast or too deep.
They almost always end up stalled and sitting, looking stupid, with two feet of water in their car.
Is it because they are incapable of understanding what might happen?
Or maybe they’re missing too many brain cells to figure it out.
I guess that’s the same thing.
There’s really only two things to remember.
Maybe writing it down and pasting it on the dashboard might help:
1) Drive through deep water too fast and the water will pile up in front of your car, move into the engine compartment and kill the engine.
If water gets into the engine through the intake manifold while it’s running, it’ll destroy the engine.
2) Try to drive through water too deep and water gets onto the engine compartment, no matter how slow you’re going, and kill the engine.
If it gets into the intake manifold while it’s running it’ll destroy the engine.
It’ll also flood your car’s interior making it a piece of expensive, moldy junk.
Almost without exception, when I came up on one of these scenes, the driver was a young guy or a woman.
Figure out your own reasons – I’m not going there.
Seriously, if the road has a foot of water on it, don’t go there.
If there is about 6 inches of water on it, go real slow.
It’s not hard to remember.
Lecture over.
I feel better, thank you.
There are sooo many ignorant people on the road these days who will do exactly as mentioned above, get frustrated, angry, swear, kick the car, yell at the car, yell at others…..all due to stupidity.
Hawaii has changed and not for the better.
So sad.